3-3-99 Happy Birthday to Colleen! We were hoping to be sailing to some remote south Pacific island for this special day, but the timing didn't work out. We're in Colón, Panama - the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Colón is not a nice city, as a matter of fact, it's dirty, ugly and unsafe. There are taxis to take boaters to where they need to go, because walking is not recommended. But it's good to be here and preparing for our transit through the canal. We had our boat admeasured today by a canal official. They take several key measurements and check to make sure it is sturdy and prepared for the trip. There are approximately 50 cruising boats here either waiting to transit, or having just transited from the Pacific side. We've seen alot of international ship traffic too - cruise ships, ocean going tugs, container ships, oil tankers, military ships, submarines, etc. It's a very busy place. We are scheduled for transit on Thursday, 3/11/99 and our toll is $625, with $125 being refunded after the transit. (The record toll is $162,235.58 for the cruise ship "Rhapsody of the Sea".) We will share the transit with other boaters, since we'll need more "hands on deck" than just the two of us. We're required to have 4 "line-handlers", the captain, and an advisor onboard to guide the boat in the lock chambers. Local line-handlers are for hire, but many boaters take turns with other boaters. We are transiting the canal first on Monday, 3/8/99 on a boat named FOREVER YOUNG - new friends we met in the San Blas. We'll assist with their lines, then for SIMMER's transit, they assist with our lines. We'll catch a bus back and forth between the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the canal. Today we went to see the first lock at Gatún in operation. There was a large container ship in the lock and a couple of tugs. We didn't get to see a small boat, but it was amazing. I can't believe we are going to do that in our little boat! The canal is 50 miles wide and cuts through the Panamanian isthmus from northwest to southeast. We are anxious to go through and experience this engineering wonder of the world! Our boat will be gradually be raised 85 feet at Gatún Locks ("up-lock"). Then we are in an artificial lake - Lake Gatún - 85 feet above sea level. We will anchor for the night and finish the trip the following day (larger boats make the transit in one day). The next day we will motor through Gaillard Cut through the continental divide and be "down-locked" at Pedro Miguel Lock and Miraflores Lock on the Pacific side. Hopefully we can upload an update from the Pacific side, so you know how our transit went. Then it'll be awhile till we're back on-line. Lots of water in the Pacific which will take time to cross and once we do, we'll make landfalls on small islands probably without phone lines. We actually went to the movies tonight, by taxi, of course, for Colleen's birthday. There is a little theatre near the army base that shows movies in English with Spanish subtitles. We saw "You Have E-mail" ("Tiene una E-mail" in Spanish). What a treat....we haven't seen TV, let alone a movie in ages.
3-8-99 Pat is off to help another boat, FOREVER YOUNG, go through the canal and Colleen is staying alone onboard SIMMER for a couple days, since we weren't comfortable leaving her unattended while we both went. There are some last minute things for Colleen to take care of here in Colón, such as mail, some food shopping, and preparing the boat for transit (translates to cooking ahead of time for 6 people!). Hopefully when Pat gets back we'll be ready to go and our transit date doesn't slip. We are anxious to get to the Pacific side now.
3-13-99 We're in the Pacific (Lat 8° 57' N, Lon 79° 33' W) and it feels great! We had a terrific canal transit, after being bumped one day to Friday, 3/12 . The canal operates 24 hours a day, but small yachts like us go through only early in the morning. Our crew consisted of 3 fellow boaters that helped us line-handle and 1 Panama Canal Commission (PCC) advisor, Pat and Colleen for a total of 6. All vessels under 65 ft. in length require a PCC advisor onboard and vessels over 65 ft. require a PCC pilot who actually takes the helm and steers through the canal. It takes 12 years of training for the advisors to work up to piloting large ships. We entered the first lock at Gatún behind a huge 560 foot container ship, bound for Singapore, and a canal tugboat. The container ship was moored forward in the lock and the tug was behind it, tied to the sidewall. We entered the lock chamber tied alongside a 38 ft. French sailboat, and tied our raft of two sailboats alongside the tug. The group of us were raised 85 feet through a series of 3 locks and it was an absolutely unbelievable experience. We didn't have any line-handling to do, once the water level in the locks increased, the tugboat crew had to do all the work, taking up the mooring lines. The two sailboats were just along for the ride. We went through 3 separate locks this way. Before we left the final lock, the two sailboats separated from the tug. It pulled ahead of us and then we untied from the French boat and motor-sailed separately into Gatún Lake. Once we anchored, our PCC advisor, Rueben, was picked up by a canal motor boat. The rest of our crew stayed onboard overnight with us. We decided to deploy our inflatable dinghy and take a ride up the Chagres River for a cooling fresh-water swim. It was so neat, to swim in the middle of the isthmus, in fresh water, near the continental divide and watch commercial shipping traffic go by. The next day the advisor told us there are alligators in the Chagres River, yikes! The second day, our advisor, Manuel, was dropped off at 0845 and we completed the second half of the canal trip. This time we down-locked as a raft of 3 sailboats, tied together side by side, center chamber style. The same French sailboat we were tied to yesterday and a smaller Croatian sailboat. Center chamber means we weren't tied against a sidewall, we were free floating in the center of the lock chamber with long mooring lines tied to both sides. Also in the chamber with us again, was another big ship - 470 foot refridge ship, carrying fruit, bound for Ecuador. This time the ship was behind us in the chamber. In a down-lock, as the water level drops, the line-handlers have to ease out the mooring lines to keep the boats in the center of the chamber. It was a little more work than up-locking tied to a tug yesterday. Passing through the continental divide was inspiring, the effort required to create this cut, and the entire canal, are truly amazing when you see it first hand. We arrived in Balboa on the Pacific side at 1400, and celebrated with lots of "liquid refreshments" - including our own special SIMMER ALE! The canal was such an awesome experience, it's something we'll never forget. We could write pages and pages about it, but maybe it's best to have you check out their website: www.pancanal.com . We were told they have live video of lock operations, we haven't check it out. Should be interesting and full of history/facts about the canal.
3-17-99 Happy St. Paddy's Day! I made Irish potatoes and soda bread to celebrate the occasion, and we have plenty of Panamanian beer onboard, some Guinness too. We are getting close to being ready for the big jump off into the Pacific. We are still waiting for our mail that was sent to Colón over 2 weeks ago. We'll take a bus back to get it, 1 and 1/2 hr ride for $2.00. Hopefully it is still coming and isn't lost, it's all our end of year tax stuff that we need to do our taxes before we leave! Panama City, the capital of Panama, is close by and we've been wandering around the last few days looking for marine stores, grocery stores, ATM machines, and such. Panama City is very nice, a big change from Colón - much more prosperous and cosmopolitan. I'm having a little difficulty following the Spanish here, they talk too fast for me to understand, like New Yorkers! The weather on the Pacific side is also different from the Atlantic side. The water is cooler, 72° versus 80°, on the Atlantic side. This makes the nights cooler too - low 70s. The winds are lighter and we are getting heavy dew on the boat in the morning for the first time since Florida. The tides are also very different. On the Atlantic side we had only 1 ft. of tide. Here on the Pacific side we have 18 ft. tides! We'll soon be on our way to check out the wildlife in the Galapagos, then on to the Marquesas in French Polynesia. So we won't be chatting for quite a while, we suspect. Next web update will probably be in 2 months or so!
3-21-99 Happy Spring everyone. We are in the Las Perlas (The Pearls) Islands, Lat 08°30'N/Lon 79°03'W. We'll have a shortened Spring this year, since we'll only be in the Northern Hemisphere for another week or so. Once we cross the Equator, it'll be Fall in the Southern Hemisphere. The sun passed us heading north today! At least the days are getting longer and a little warmer for our family and friends in the northeast. Las Perlas is a small Panamanian archipelago about 40 miles south of the canal in the Gulf of Panama. We decided to stop here for a few days before we head off to the Galapagos. We wanted to relax and swim a little after running around in the big city (Panama City). Las Perlas are beautiful with innumerable sandy beaches and green wooded/floral landscapes. The tricky part of cruising here is the 16 ft. tides. You have to be very conscientious of the tidal range and know if it's high or low tide when sailing and anchoring. There are also many isolated rocks and the water is not crystal clear to see them. We've collected our first Pacific shells here too, a little different from the Atlantic and Caribbean varieties. We sailed passed a bright purple and pink beach which appeared to be covered in fallen flowers, once we anchored and dinghied to it, we found layers of purple, orange and pink scallop shells! We couldn't believe how many on this one little stretch of sand. At high tide, all the beaches disappear and the islands look completely different. There are beautiful homes and resorts on some of the islands, a vacation spot for wealthy Panamanians. We haven't fished here, but we have had luck diving for oysters. Very tasty, but no pearls yet!
3-25-99 Offshore in the Pacific, Lat 3° 27'N/Lon 82° 12'W. We're into the 3rd day of our 870 mile passage to the Galapagos. We expect the trip to take 7-10 days, depending on winds and current. This area of the ocean is notorious for less than perfect sailing conditions. The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), also known as the Doldrums, lies just north of the Equator, here - light and variable winds. Many marine currents converge here, the major ones - El Niño current from the Gulf of Panama in the northern hemisphere and the Humboldt current from Peru in the southern hemisphere. This convergence provides sailors with little wind, fickle currents, and sometimes stormy weather for reaching the Galapagos. Before we left Balboa, we acquired recycled jugs to take on extra diesel for extended motoring. Some of the local restaurants use cooking oil in 5 gal. plastic jugs, and once emptied and cleaned, they give them to boaters heading out to the Galapagos. We filled 4 (extra 20 gal) with diesel and tied them on deck. That gave us a total of 95 gallons onboard, for approximately a 1,000 mile motoring range. We did have great sailing the first 30 hours out of the Gulf of Panama, and didn't have to motor at all. We had the spinnaker up for half a day and saw steady speeds of 8-8.5 knots, thanks in part to steady current with us. We had a few speeds top off at 10 knots. A spinnaker is a lightweight, colorful sail forward of the mast that fills with air when the wind is behind the boat. Recently the winds have been fluky, little to none. We've been trolling and have caught 3 tuna so far. Our first fish was a big guy, we never saw it, but broke our 25 lb. test line very easily and we lost our lucky lore. The ocean is calm now and looks like a pond. The slight swells are very different from the Atlantic and Caribbean ones we're used to. The Pacific swells are farther apart and you hardly realize the boat is gently lifted. It's almost as though the ocean was slowly breathing when you watch the surface.
3-28-99 Hi family and friends, we're "down under" now. We officially crossed the Equator at 5:20 PM EST this afternoon and transitioned from Spring to Fall. Our current position is Lat 00°05' S (notice the "S" for South) and Lon 85° 59'W. Another major milestone met! We had a memorable crossing - a small pod of dolphins welcomed us into the Southern Hemisphere and we popped a bottle of champagne and celebrated. We also had some of our SIMMER Ale and offered a touch to King Neptune to keep us on his good side in the Pacific. We had a spectacular sunset, and it's now 8:30 PM, and Colleen is on watch typing this in the cockpit by the light of a waxing moon, a multitude of stars, and the glow from the radar screen. No ship traffic around, just a big empty ocean. The Constellation "Crux", or the Southern Cross is just over my left shoulder and the Big Dipper is on my right. We use the Southern Cross as a reference now, it is located in the southern sky (180° on the compass) and consists of 4 major stars and one lesser star. The four stars make up the cross and the it's vertical line points toward the South Pole. It looks like this:
We'll use it instead of the North Star as a navigational aid. It has special significance for us since our boat type is a Southern Cross. Pat is sleeping down below and is due to come on watch in half an hour. We're 223 miles from our destination, Wreck Bay on Isla San Cristóbal, Galapagos and making good speed with main sail and jib, doing 6.4 knots with light winds and favorable current. Should arrive in Wreck Bay in a couple days.
3-30-99 Happy Birthday to Colleen's sister, Sharon. We won't say how old, just that she reached a major milestone in her own right! We arrived in the Galapagos today, after 7 days of sailing 845 miles - we sailed the first 2 days and motored sailed the last 5 days. The Galapagos, also known as the Archipélago de Colón, is a group of 13 major islands and several minor ones and is a National Park of Ecuador. We approached Isla San Cristóbal (St. Christopher) at daybreak this morning and it was eerie with no wind, heavy cloud cover and light fog. The physical characteristics of the islands are striking and very dramatic. They are volcanic in origin and some are estimated about 3 million years old (sister Sharon is not quite that old!). Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution here in 1835 when he served as a naturalist on the British ship H.M.S. BEAGLE, which was performing a world wide mapping effort. We can't wait to take a tour on the islands and see all the interesting wildlife. We have already seen numerous land and sea birds (masked boobies, blue-footed boobies, frigates, finches, etc), sea lions, hammerhead sharks, dolphins, and sea turtles. The sea lions are right here in the anchorage: swimming around, lounging on moored boats and barking on the shoreline. We haven't met any tortoises, iguanas or penguins yet! Galapagos means "giant tortoise" in Spanish and they are the "totem" of the islands. Each island has it's own endemic species of giant tortoise, with minor variations in the shape of the shell. There are land and marine iguanas, and the marine iguanas are the only true marine lizard in the world, pretty cool. The Galapagos penguins are endemic and the furthest north that any penguins exist (others in Antarctic, very southern tip of South America, and southern coast of Australia). We find it difficult to associate penguins with this equatorial, tropical climate in lieu of icebergs and glaciers. Visiting yachts were previously only allowed a 3 day visit in the Galapagos, but Ecuador has recently relaxed the restrictions and we have been permitted to stay 20 days. We'll probably stay at least 10-14 days, we don't want to miss anything.
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